The Supreme Court case involving Colorado Republican primary ballot access for Donald Trump hinged on a provision of the U.S. Constitution.
CNBC
The Supreme Court on Monday tossed out a Colorado court ruling that barred Donald Trump from appearing on the state’s Republican presidential primary ballot because of a provision in the U.S. Constitution related to people who engage in insurrection.
The unanimous decision said that “States have no power under the Constitution to” enforce the provision disqualifying people from federal office if they engaged in insurrection, “especially the Presidency.” The ruling said states could disqualify people from holding state offices on those grounds.
The ruling mean that no other state can bar Trump, or any other candidate, from a presidential ballot by invoking the insurrection clause in the Constitution.
The decision in Trump’s favor — which means votes he garners on Tuesday’s ballot will count for the former president — was not a surprise.
During oral arguments in the case on Feb. 8, many of the court’s nine justices appeared skeptical of the Colorado Supreme Court’s rationale and process for disqualifying Trump from the ballot.
“I think that the question that you have to confront is why a single state should decide who gets to be president of the United States,” Justice Elena Kagan, one of the court’s more progressive members, said during the hearing to a lawyer for the six Colorado voters who sought Trump’s disqualification.
After Colorado barred Trump from the ballot, two other states, Maine and Illinois, did the same.
